Joseph Osafo is an Associate Professor of Clinical/Health Psychology and Head of the Department of Psychology, University of Ghana. He has been a lead investigator/co-investigator on various projects in the areas of suicidality, maternal/child health, and mental health. Professor Osafo has published more than 50 articles in international peer reviewed journals and is a licensed practicing clinical psychologist/suicidologist in Ghana. He is a member of the following international associations: International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) and Critical Suicidology. He is the Executive Director for Centre for Suicide and Violence Research- Ghana (CSVR)

EDUCATION: BA, Mphil (Ghana), PhD – NTNU (Norway)

AREA OF SPECIALIZATION

Clinical Psychology, Health Science (Suicidology), Adolescent Sexuality

Ongoing Research and Collaborations

1. Evidence for better Lives study Funded by Fondation Botnar
   2. Representation of personhood from African Oral tradition. Funded by Mellon Foundation. 2018-2022.
   3. Together for Mental Health: Using collaborative visual research methods to understand experiences of mental illness, coercion and restraint in Ghana and Indonesia. Funded by Economic and Social Research Council
2. Programme for Effective Promotion of Maternal Psychosocial WELL-being-PREPWELL. University of Ghana Multi-disciplinary Grant

Some Recent Publications

1. Osafo, J.,Asante, K.O., & Akotia C.S (in press). Suicide prevention in the African region. Crisis 41(Suppl 1), xx–xx https://doi.org/10.1027/0227–5910/a000668
2. Osafo, J.(in press). From Psychocentric Explanations to Social Troubles. Suicide and Social Justice: New Perspectives on the Politics of Suicide and Suicide Prevention, 35.
3. Osafo, J., Akotia, C. S., Quarshie, E. N. B., Andoh-Arthur, J., & Boakye, K. E. (2019). Community leaders’ attitudes
4. Akotia, C. S., Osafo, J., Asare-Doku, W., & Boakye, K. E. News Editors’ Views about Suicide and Suicide Stories in Ghana. Psychological Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-019-00511-4
5. Asare-Doku, W., Osafo, J., & Akotia, C. S. (2019). Comparing the reasons for suicide from attempt survivors and their families in Ghana. BMC public health, 19(1), 412.
6. Osafo, J., Akotia, C. S., Boakye, K. E., & Dickson, E. (2018). Between moral infraction and existential crisis: Exploring physicians and nurses’ attitudes to suicide and the suicidal patient in Ghana. International journal of nursing studies, 85, 118-125.
7. Gloria, O., Osafo, J., Goldmann, E., Parikh, N. S., Nonvignon, J., & Kretchy, I. M. (2018). The experiences of providing caregiving for patients with schizophrenia in the Ghanaian context. Archives of psychiatric nursing, 32(6), 815-822.
8. Murray, A. L., Kaiser, D., Valdebenito, S., Hughes, C., Baban, A., Fernando, A. D., Osafo, J... & Sikander, S. (2018). The intergenerational effects of intimate partner violence in pregnancy: mediating pathways and implications for prevention. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 1524838018813563